Sadhwani is Challenger champ

 

 

THE title already in his basket, Nagpur’s Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani finished the Maharashtra Challenge Match against experienced Briton Nigel Short taking a total of 20 points. In the last round battle, Raunak rounded it off with a win at the Naivedhyam Northstar, Koradi, on Tuesday. Rising star Raunak, who once attended a coaching camp by Short about three years back, was in good nick to win with a total score of 20-8 points. In fact, Raunak had already clinched the title on Monday with an unsurpassable score, making Tuesday’s games a mere formality. “I really enjoy playing Blitz and am happy with my performance here,” said and elated Raunak. Raunak was brilliance and speed personified as he won the Blitz section with a whopping 7.5-0.5 points score, scoring 3.5/4.

 

The Maharashtra Challenge Match featuring two inaugural and innovative Matches between super Grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi versus Peter Svidler and Raunak Sadhwani versus Nigel Short had both Indians winning comfortably. The event comprised 4 Classical Games, 4 Rapid Games and 8 Blitz games. Vidit defeated eight times Russian champion and three times Candidate qualifier Peter Svidler with a 17.5-10.5 score. This is the first time that both Vidit and Raunak have featured in one-to-one matches. Interestingly, both players were rating favourites as they enjoyed higher rating than their illustrious opponent but the vast experience of both players was expected to be a crucial factor. Vidit after some disastrous results in the Blitz got going on the last day scoring 2.5/4. Vidit was more impressive in the Classical and Rapid games but faltered in the Blitz games. In a way these Matches could also be described as youth versus experience Matches though Vidit is already amongst the elite 2700 plus club while 18-year old has just began his journey into the elites.

 

THREE SHARE LEAD

WITH 6.5 POINTS EACH

Overnight leaders FM Vedant Panesar and IM Szpar Milosz were involved in well fought draw on the top board while IM Rohith Krishna created a big upset by defeating third seed Luka Paichadze in a beautiful game in the 8th round of the 2nd Maharashtra International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament.

Vedant, Milosz, Rohit are once again jointly leading the tournament with 6.5 points each while trailing behind on six points are Federov, Neelash Saha and Mayank Chakraborty. In relevant results Federov Alexei beat IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete, Neelash Saha defeated Ritviz Parab and Mayank Chakraborty outwitted GM Burmakin Vladimir.